Your guide to independent travel

Interesting Facts About Russia

Facts about Russia that few people know

1. Everyone knows the interesting fact that Russia is the coldest country in the world, but few know that the coldest point of Russia and whole the world (except the Arctic and Antarctic) – is an Oymyakon village in Yakutia. There was recorded temperature -71,2 ° C in 1924.

2. Russia – the largest country in the world – it is a well-known fact. But few know that even before the existence of the Russian Empire, this territory was designated as the Great Russian Tartary. This designation can be found on the maps of Mercator and in the Encyclopedia Britannica, and many other sources.

3. The whole world knows that the Russians love vodka. But not everyone knows that vodka is also a national drink for Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Serbs, Macedonians and many other European nations. Russian and Ukrainians like to drink a lot of alcohol, but if you take the example of world statistics – it would appear that most drinking nations – is Finland.

4. Everyone knows the fact that the capital of Russia is Moscow, but not everyone knows that Moscow – is not in the full sense a part of Russia. Moscow city like a state within a state.

A lot of people live in Moscow (according to unofficial statistics, about 25 million). Also on the Moscow streets is always a problem with the traffic. Often you can see on Google Maps and Yandex maps traffic situation, which is estimated at 10 points out of 10. Moscow city is very interesting for its nightlife. You can read about the night life in Moscow in this article Top 10 Night Clubs in Moscow.

5. In Russia there are many cities with a population of over 1 million people. These cities are: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Omsk, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa, Volgograd, Perm.

6. Russia for centuries been famous for beautiful girls. That is why you can find a lot of faces of Russian girls on the covers of American and European magazines, on television and in advertising.

7. There wasn’t a paid education In Russia, until recently. The Level of education occupied a place of honor in all international rankings. An interesting fact – even after commercial Universities began to appear in Russia, all the state Universities still stayed free.

8. Lake Baikal is the largest repository of fresh water on the planet. Lake Baikal is also the deepest in the world.

9. Russia ranks 2nd in the world in oil production. First place takes Saudi Arabia, and the third place is occupied by the United States. An interesting fact, but Russia has the world’s largest reserve of natural resources and minerals.

10. Fun fact – you will never meet in the Russian bear who walks down the street, drinking vodka and playing the balalaika. This myth is the most common misconception in the West about Russia.

11. The largest number of billionaires in the world lives in Moscow. Many Russian girls dream to be married to a billionaire, but much often they get married for “bear with balalaika.”

But more seriously fact – it is very expensive to live in Moscow. Most of the restaurants are expensive. The nightclubs are open for foreigners (but only wealthy foreigners). It is almost impossible to drive around the city by car.

12. There is the oldest city in the world in Russia. Its name – Arkaim (Russian Stonehenge). More details about this city you can read my article Arkaim – The Russian Sonehenge.

13. In Russia there are 10 time zones because of the enormous extent of its territory, from west to east.

14. An interesting fact, but the Russian contrary to popular belief, very friendly. If you come into the any of Russian houses – a laid table and of course alcohol (not necessarily vodka) will await for you.

15. Interesting fact that Russians are very knowledgeable about politics, including the world politics, but Russians are very gullible, so they are very easy to mislead with regard to political affiliation.

16. The science in Russia weakly funded by the state, but Russians are very creative and they like to get things done in any case. So the expression is common in the West that Russians launches the spacecrafts in sandals.

17. An interesting fact about Russia: Russian people are very positive. Probably the most popular genre of cinema – it’s a comedy. In Russia it was shot a lot of comedy films. Unfortunately, the meaning of these films is understandable only Russians. The fact is that all the comedy films are illustrated life in a certain era, at a certain king or ruler.

18. There is one of the largest libraries in the world in Novosibirsk. This library collects about 14 million volumes of books.

19. Two of the most famous diamonds in the world stored in the Moscow Diamond Fund. One of them is called “Shah”, its weighing – 88 carats. On the stone you can see the names of its previous owners. Another diamond “Orlov” – the largest in the collection of the Diamond Fund. Presumably it was found in India and has been an eye of the statue of the Buddha. Later, Count Orlov bought it as a gift to Catherine II

20. Interesting fact: The Russians rarely throw broken things. Every Russian man likes to work with his hands and often tries to repair the broken thing before you throw it in a landfill. Fun fact is that very often in Russian apartment on the balcony you can see absolutely unnecessary things (example 1 ski 1 audio column).

21. The literacy rate in Russia is 99%. Overall, people in Russia are very smart, they love to read and study the history and classical authors.

22. Most of the leading scientists and engineers in the world, were Russian. YablochkovLodygin and invented the first electric light bulb, Popov – wireless telegraph, Sikorsky invented helicopter and created a bomber, Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky invented a color photo, and Zworykin – TV. The most interesting fact about the Russian scientists is that without a chemical table, which was created by Dmitri Mendeleev, we were not able to be found in modern chemistry and physics.

23. Fun fact: In the Moscow metro all stations in the center of the city voiced a male voice and a female from the center.

The Moscow Metro is not only the most common mode of transport, but also an architectural monument. Many metro stations look like underground castles. Despite the fact that the metro runs every 90 seconds, many Muscovites prefer to go to work driving a car. It can take from 1.5 to 4 hours.

24. Interesting fact: In Russia there is such a variety of swear words and their derivatives, that many people can express their thoughts and feelings only in that language. Despite the common misconception, foul language is used to express emotions rather than as an insult.

25. Russian Trans-Siberian Railway passes through eight time zones, starting in Moscow and ending point of arrival in Beijing, China. The length of the route – more than 9000 km

26. Two of the five founding fathers of Hollywood came from Russia. In particular, the founders of «MGM» Goldwyn and Mayer. Meyer to the end of life did not speak in English with difficulty reading the script.